Provenance: Galerie Claude Lafitte, Montreal

Certified and authenticated

Walter Klinkhoff Gallery, Montreal, 1993

Galerie Valentin, Montreal, 1991

Galerie Dominion, Montreal, 1991

Marc-Aurèle Fortin – End of the day, Saint-Rose, 1937 

In Fin du jour, Saint-Rose (1937), Marc-Aurèle Fortin addresses a subject that occupies an important place in his work: the rural landscape of Quebec and the village habitat. Guy Robert calls Fortin "a man on the way", highlighting the artist’s many travels through the countryside to capture its essence. He also notes the importance of the theme of the village house in his work and writes:

"In fact, the itinerary that the painter seems to propose to our gaze [...] the isolated house in the countryside, which he often observes with discretion and modesty, from a certain distance, concealing it partly or more or less important behind a curtain of shrubs or a hill."

Art historian François-Marc Gagnon observes that Fortin is more interested in the habitat than the inhabitant, unlike Suzor-Coté. He writes:

"The countryside evoked a peaceful road just occupied by a hay cart under the big elms, near the ancestral houses, rather than old settlers with arched shoulders of Suzor-Coté."

Fin du jour, Sainte-Rose perfectly illustrates this vision of the rural landscape described by Gagnon in Marc-Aurèle Fortin: experience of color. The painting presents a village seen from afar, harmoniously integrated into its natural environment. The great elm occupies the center of the composition, while an ancestral house appears on the right. The tranquility of the landscape and the suggested human presence structure the visual narrative of the painting.

The composition is also distinguished by the silhouette of the tree, whose foliage appears sparse. This feature suggests an advanced season, possibly autumn, when the leaves begin to fall and the landscape changes as winter approaches. Without being a definitive indication, this visual element contributes to the atmosphere of transition that emerges from the scene.

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